Air Mobility Rodeo
In this environment units are able to demonstrate capabilities, improve procedures, compare notes, and enhance standardization for global operations.
The first Mobility Guardian exercise took place 30 July to 12 August 2017 at JB Lewis-McChord[1] The competition tests the flight and ground skills of security forces, aerial port operations, aeromedical evacuation, and maintenance team members.
[3] The Kennedy Administration further stressed the importance of rapid global mobility in his first State of the Union Address stating “Obtaining air transport mobility—and obtaining it now—will better assure the ability of our conventional forces to respond, with discrimination and speed, to any problem at any spot on the globe at a moment's notice.”[4] The President wanted the U.S. to have the capability to prevent both limited and guerrilla wars by being able to rapidly deploy military forces around the world.
[3] Up to this direction from the Kennedy Administration MATS had only required troop carrier units equipped with C-124 Globemaster II aircraft to be qualified in its Computed Air Release Point (CARP) aerial delivery technique.
On 11 July three crews for each wing flew low-level navigation routes and dropped miniature parachutes over part of Winters-Davis Airport near Travis Air Force Base, California.
During each mission the team dropped a 25 ounce shot bag attached to a miniature parachute simulating a 225 pound load.
[3] On 1 April 1963 MATS required all units with airdrop capability to train formation flying, and the aerial delivery of personnel and equipment using CARP.
[3] As involvement in the Vietnam War began to escalate military resources were shifted toward supporting the fighting in Southeast Asia.
So, MAC held a Combat Airlift Competition from 12 – 20 July 1969 at Charleston Air Force Base, South Carolina for C-141 wings.
The competition involved using CARP procedures delivering both personnel and equipment during both day and night flying utilizing drop zones at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and Strategic Air Command's Radar Bomb Scoring Site at Richmond, Kentucky.
Throughout these competitions MAC leadership noted that the increased emphasis on airdrop training had led to greater accuracy.
In MAC part of that restructuring including cutting back on airdrop training, and in 1973 airdrop training was halted at Dover, McChord, McGuire, and Travis Air Force Bases and reduced its total air drop crew force to 40 active duty and eight associate reserve crews.
Department of Defense leadership mandated capability to rapidly reinforce Europe while also dispatching forces to deal simultaneous crises in other parts of the world.
MAC leadership again considered a competition format as an excellent way to gauge the level of proficiency and refine airdrop techniques.
[3] By this time the C-7 and C-123 airframes were being phased out of the inventory, so they did not compete in the 1982 Rodeo at Pope Air Force Base from 13 – 18 June.
The 1982 Rodeo was also the first that saw an allied nation win the overall competition as Italy's 46th Air Brigade won the Best Wing Award.
The latter two participated in overland infiltration event using Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement System (MILES) gear help to create realism, and the Combat Control teams conducted High Altitude-Low Opening (HALO) jumps and established drop zones.
President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of the Air Force Edward Aldridge Jr. were also on hand for Bob Hope's performance.
The C-5 set a world record by dropping four M551 Sheridan light tanks and 73 paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division totaling 190,346 pounds.
